Critical Pedagogy and Popular Culture in an Urban Secondary English Classroom

          For some reason this article didn't resonate with me as much as the other articles we have read. In any case, this article still talked about some good points that I agree with.
          I really like the point about people being able to communicate professionally, especially in academic advancement and professional employment. If a potential employee can't use Standard English correctly with their employer that shows a sign of unprofessionalism and could potentially loose that person a job. To succeed in the world that we are living in now it is tough to get a job without a college degree. Also, employers want their employees to be literate and professional. By teaching our students critical literacy we can prepare our students for the professional world that is unforgiving when they aren't literate.
          I agree that focusing on academic literacy shouldn't compromise the other pieces of an English class. I think students learning grows the most when they can develop their own opinions about the material they are learning. When students think about the material they are learning, instead of just taking it in then regurgitating it when the test on that material rolls around, they learn it more thoroughly.
          The poetry lesson that includes hip hop music is genius. At the first sign of poetry high school students, and even college students to some degree, turn the opposite way and run. If teachers related poetry to hip hop they would be more inclined to relate to the lesson, especially if they got to use their favorite hip hop song as a reference. When it's the first day of class students are uncomfortable with each other. Having the students recite one of their own poems that they wrote at the end of a semester or quarter is much better than placing it in the second week of school. Like the article said the poems the students shared later in the class "were often some of the personally revealing and moving moments in the class." The students would learn so much, not just about poetry, but about themselves during the unit. That is why I think it's a very powerful lesson to teach the students.